Willits moving forward on drought relief

Chamberlain Creek fire crews helping construct an emergency pipeline to get water from a valley well closer to the city. This project is the first phase of an emergency project to augment the city water supply with well water. Photo by Allison Dickson/The Willits News.

Willits city staff continue to work feverishly to flesh out an emergency project to supply water to the city even if rains fail to arrive for the rest of the winter.

Construction is about half completed on a 3,100 feet of water pipeline around the city's sewer treatment wetlands needed to get the water from the Elias well to the sewage treatment plant. This project is expected to cost about $65,000 and will complete by next week. Replacing the pump on the well is expected to cost another $40,000.

Using the existing piping between the sewage plant and E. Commercial Street hit a snag this week when the California Department of Public Health told them it could not be used because it had been used at one time for reused water. Discussions are ongoing with public health to allow this. If this option is not permitted, the city will have to install a new pipeline from the sewer plant to Commercial Street. This will include bridging one of the area creeks.

Scoping out a portable water treatment plant also remains a significant issue. Sample results from the two wells were received Tuesday afternoon. The results confirmed the presence of arsenic in the park well at several times the post treatment standard. The city has been working with treatment vendors to design a system to remove the arsenic down to the level found in water from the city's reservoirs. The Elias well, located north of the sewer treatment plant, had non-detectable arsenic levels but 200 parts per million of manganese. City staff is hoping to have a recommended treatment option for the Jan. 22 city council meeting.

Two types of treatment options are under consideration each potentially costing about $50,000 to set up with rental costs of $50,000 per month.

Green-sand treatment is one option for removal of arsenic and other heavy metals. Green-sand is typically based on manganese glauconite. There are many varieties of green sand which can be matched to remove different water contaminants. The green sand acts similarly to a water softener, except it removes metal compounds.

Another possible option is molecular filtration which removes the undesirable materials, such as arsenic and manganese dissolved in the water.